Lush has finalised its employee ownership scheme in North America, after completing a company-wide election to introduce the Lush Employee Benefit Trust (EBT).
The cosmetics brand’s North American staff, along with its other shareholders, will now own a proportion of the business through the EBT.
Lush has been partly employee-owned for the past five years, after shareholders gifted 10% of the company shares.
“As shareholders, our early discussions were about the security of the business and protecting our ethos and this has to be the most important thing,” said Mo Constantine, a shareholder and company appointed EBT trustee.
“We have to question – ‘who do we want to entrust with the future of our business’ and it’s our staff.
"We’ve got the EBT to a position now where our staff are able to have a call on things which has shown to be very appropriate over recent years.”
It comes after the group acquired its North America partner market in April 2022.
North American employees will now have access to benefits shared by other staff members in the EBT.
This includes the brand’s bonus scheme, which rewards them if the company is financially successful.
Staff in North America will also be able to hold the company accountable to its ethical standards.
“It exists to provide a sense of ownership so when our staff get out of bed in the morning, they know who they are working for and if there is something they’re not happy about, they can make a difference,” added Constantine.